Resurrection

Drifting, floating, flying on nothingness. It was strangely blissful here, where there was no pain nor sadness, no anger nor hate. All that existed here was an all-encompassing light.

Yet, at the same time there was anger, there was sadness. Even a tinge of hate and a lingering pain of death and unfulfillment.

Peace… But this wasn't what I wanted. I had dreams and they were thwarted. Smashed like a fly on a window. Was it all for nothing? But I am not yet defeated. Never will I be defeated. My spirit is too strong, too strong for even the Planet to hold. My dreams will come true. I have the power to make them come true. No matter how long it will take, I will fulfill my one true destiny. I will arise once more…

The womb of the Planet loomed overhead, as majestic as the yellow moon on a clear black night. And the smaller but equally brilliant orbs like giant pearls dotted the dark space above with streams of light that twined about each the other and onward into endless dark. An imaginary wind howled.

And he was trapped here and he was going to be trapped here forever. A grave of dreams and souls in an ocean of light. He suffered such duress and loneliness in this sacred prison of his. He looked up at the great womb hanging like a golden pendulum over his head. He lent out a pleading hand to the pulsing sphere.

Why must I remain here? I refuse to lie down like a dog and vanish from existence. I have to go back, I must. No one can keep me here. I will find my way back.

-Yes. It is not your time to disappear. Fulfill your grand dream. The Planet requires that you do so. Only you and your power can accomplish the will of the Planet. Now go forth and escape from this earthly limbo. Set the cogs of fate in motion and allow your grand designs for the Planet to unfurl and blossom into something most glorious.

Yes, I shall.

-Yes…

"Hello? Are you alright? Wake up," cried a voice in all urgency.

Cold. He felt cold. It was a wonderful feeling, one he'd not experienced in years, save for the clammy bitter clasp of death around his heart. It was divine. And to hear anything but the eerie howling of that abyss. Absolute heaven.

"Let's get him back to town," said another voice. He felt something warm drape over him, then careful hands take him up and carry him off. He cared less about where he was going to be taken. The only thing that mattered to him now was that he could breathe again. Sweet, pure cool air. He relished it. It was all coming back to him now. His lungs remembered. His heart remembered everything before his death and imprisonment. The blood that pumped through his veins. The blood. That blood. His blood.

A gentle heat arose all around him. He almost wished to stay wherever he was forever but he couldn't. He had a mission. But…he was weak. He had to rest before he could go any further. Rest. It had been too long since he last rested like this. In that prison, all he could do was wander aimlessly and brood on broken and confused thoughts after being sealed away. His blood bubbled in his veins, the heated anger mounting on the surface of his skin. Ah, yes. Skin. It was wonderful to have flesh again. To touch and to feel again. And this warmth was what he wanted to feel. So much better than the cold.

--

"Hey, wake up." That voice again. It sounded like a girl calling to him.

"…mnh…" He groaned. His arms and legs seemed like jelly, as though he'd never used them ever in his life before. As though he had just been born.

"It's been three days now. It's about time you woke up," the voice told him.

"Don't push him," said the second voice which belonged to a man.

"…oh…"

He tried to open his eyes, to which he also had to remember how to use, with some success. His eyelids half-opened upon the blurry figure of a round-faced young woman peering down at him. Dark blond hair framed her near angelic face underneath a woolen cap. She sighed and smiled.

"Finally, we almost thought you'd fallen into a coma," the woman said in relief. She leant in close and continued on with, "I don't know what you were doing lying out naked in the snow fields but unless you're a glutton for frostbite, I suggest you don't go back out there like that, okay? It's for your own good."

"Jas, move over a minute." A man with salt and pepper hair approached the bed in which he laid and put the back of his hand to his cheek. "Well, he's gotten a lot warmer than yesterday, that's good. But I think he still needs a little while longer to recuperate. You feeling better, buddy? Mind telling me what happened to you for you to be lying naked and unconscious out in the snow the way you were?"

His eyes narrowed at the man that hung over him like a doting father. He faced away in the opposite direction.

"Don't wanna talk, huh?"

"Don't push him, Uncle Gio. You said so yourself," the woman noted.

"I did, didn't I? Well, color me curious because stuff like this hardly ever happens around Icicle."

Icicle. So that's where I am. Near the Crater…

His eyes gradually shut against his two rescuers from the cold. He needed more rest, to regain his power. And then came darkness once again, but not the darkness he so abhorred from his prison in death. It was merely the darkness in slumber. Wonderful slumber.

--

It took several more days for him to wake up again. But even during his deep siesta, he sensed the movement around him of the man and woman who took him in.

When he did awaken…

The girl, whom he recollected to be called Jas, occupied the same room as he, rooting around under the bed he slept in. His hand that dangled off the side brushed the pate of her head and this roused him to wakefulness. He sluggishly sat up, body bent forward. Jas rose up from the floor with a box under her arm.

"Oh, you're up. Did I disturb you?" she asked. He stared woodenly at her. The woman placed the box near the foot of the bed and stood up, brushed at her knees diligently. "Maybe you're strong enough to get out of bed now?"

His being quiet unnerved her. She fidgeted with her hands.

"Oh, you know, I never properly introduced myself, have I? My name's Jas, Jas Heartlin. Just in case you haven't figured it out yet, my uncle and I were the ones who picked you up from the snow fields north of here. And may I ask what your name is?"

He continued to stare at Jas. Then he started to raise a half limp hand toward her but let it fall short. He dropped his head to where his hair veiled his face.

"What was that?" Jas bent close. She had sworn she heard him say something. "Could you repeat that?"

"…Sephiroth…"